Pope Francis has made the marriage annulment process of the Catholic Church easier. The reforms are not meant to favor the invalidity of ;marriage, but rather to make the annulment process less cumbersome. ;
The changes don't deal with divorce. The Church still considers all marriages to be indissoluble. But the Church recognizes that marriages can be invalid under some circumstances, for instance when it's a forced marriage. ;
The Pope has simplified the process by which the Church can recognize these types of cases. ;
The reforms include:
The actual annulment process will be free of charge. ;
When the invalidity of the marriage is evident, a brief case will be carried out under the supervision of a Bishop. ;
One judicial decision will be enough. Up until now, the process had to undergo many steps for it to be considered valid. ;
Another important change, is that if one of the spouses doesn't attend the process after being summoned twice, then it's considered that he or she agrees that the annulment process should move forward. ;
The process to recognize the invalidity of marriage is still a canonical process, which deals with the Church. If need be, the couple must present its case to a civil courts. ;
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